Red Glove

Fun, exciting and charming! Cassel grew up in a cruse-worker family, meaning all his family is able to cast spells - memory, emotional, luck - on others via skin-to-skin contact. This also means that curse-working is illegal, and as his family embraces their skills, they are criminals, and his brothers work for a prominent crime family.

Having grown up thinking he had no curse-working ability, Cassel is now adjusting to the knowledge that not only is he a rare and extremely powerful (and sought-after) transformation worker, but his brothers used him for years to kill people for their crime family. His guilt over those unremembered deaths plagues him, even more once he learns of his older brother's death, which leads to an investigation show more in a series of disappearances that Cassel begins to think he may have had a 'hand' in...

Black's world-building is fantastic! She effortlessly tells the reader so much about Cassel's world: a world where everyone wears gloves to reassure everyone that they're safe from the 'terrible' curse-workers. Where Cassel easily cons others, as he was raised to (his mother's been jailed for her extensive con work), yet as he's a much better person than his family, he feels really guilty about it.

He's a great character - smart, tough, funny, flawed and worried - yet Black surrounds him with almost equally appealing supporting characters. Sam, Cassel's roommate and non-curse-worker best friend is fun and interesting, as are Cassel's family. His mother, at least, is one of those rascally bad guys you can't help but like a bit.

As with White Cat, Black twists the plot around and back, and the resolution is surprising and believable. I cannot wait to read more about Cassel and his world!!

Highly Recommended. show less

I was so excited when I got Red Glove from GalleyGrab that I did a little dance with my hands in front of my computer. I loved White Cat so much and I heard that Red Glove was even better! This book totally exceeded my expectations! Holly Black is a fantastic writer and she has created a world full of suspense, excitement, and originality!

The story picked up a few months after the events of White Cat. Cassel has found out he is a transformation worker, and is trying to figure out how to use this new found “gift” and come to terms with the things he did, even if he doesn’t remember what those things are. He’s also figuring out how to deal with Lila, the girl he has been in love with forever, who now loves him back thanks to his show more mother, an emotion worker, working Lila into loving him. Not only that, but Cassel soon finds out that the FBI wants him to work for them on one side of the law, while mob boss, Zacharov, also wants Cassel under his payroll.

I love Cassel. Love, love, love him! His one-liners completely crack me up. Cassel was born into a crime family, forced to work cons (and had his memories erased by his lovely brothers after doing so), and wants nothing more than to just be a normal boy with normal teenage problems. Cassel is in such a bad predicament and I felt for him through the entire story. I had no idea where Black was going to take him, but I loved where he ended up! I really felt that we learned a lot more about who Cassel is, maybe that is because Cassel is also learning who he is. He’s trying to be a better person and protect his family, but everyone is making this so hard for him. I really am surprised Cassel was able to stay calm and rational through the whole thing. I think I was freaking out more then he was! Out of the other characters, we see a lot more of Lila, Sam, and Daneca, with each one bringing more to the story!

There were so many different plot twists that whenever I thought I finally figured something out, it ended up going in a completely different direction! I loved that! My only issue with Red Glove was that it ended, which kept me wanting so much more!

I just want to share my favorite quote from the entire book. It’s from Chapter 1, so it isn’t spoiling anything.
Cassel to his mom: “You want me to look homeless, desperate, but also kind of fabulous?” show less

High expectations are often a hard thing for books, especially anticipated sequels, to live up to, especially when I basically fangirled all over myself for the first book in this series, White Cat. I have to think that, after the whirlwind bundles of fun and originality that was the first novel, Holly Black stumbles just a bit with the second outing of the Curse Workers series. Set just months after the events of the first, pacing issues, much less action and adventure and other problems begin to accumulate early on, but don't mar the entire novel too badly. My main complaint about this is that the "mystery" at the heart of everything, just wasn't. I wasn't intrigued or confused - it felt transparent and obvious, but I still managed to show more have a mostly great time with this and Cassel, who continues to be a thoroughly entertaining main character and narrator.

Let's get the good about Red Glove out first - Cassel remains one of my favorite male YA POVs in the entire genre. Though this series is written by a mature woman, Cassel's voice, attitude and life read completely authentically - well, as authentically as can be for a super-rare Transformation worker in a series about magic-infused crime families. I'm hard-pressed to think of other authors that pull off such a feat so well. He's the same sneering bastard with a heart of gold, but he's evolved, grown up and more mature this second go-round. And while I am super, super tired of the cliched love triangle, it is somewhat interesting to read one that is male-centric - it also doesn't hurt that both girls (Lila, Audrey) are out of bounds, so it's more wishful thinking on Cassel's part than anything else. The only bad thing is about the characterization here in Red Glove is that Cassel can occasionally be as naiive as he was throughout White Cat. I know that there are maybe four people he can absolutely trust, but I wish that he would wake up and realize that hard fact as well.

Holly Black mosst certainly can't be faulted for her imagination and incorporation of her unique version of the supernatural. Her alternate universe full of ideas "hyperbathygammic" abilities and the concept of magical blowback that is truly freaky (see: anything that happens to Cassel), as well as the hierarchy of magical mafia families. Though the foreshadowing still leaves something to be desired, this is a fertile field for these characters to spin tales and deceptions, betrayals and magic. While I felt the novel diverted from the main track too often to include more about the Workers Rights platform, it is a nice addition to the social framework of the book's setting. Much like any feared and uncontrolled faction, the Workers feel persecuted as the government vacillates between forcing HBG testing or not upon its citizens. Undertones from real world racism and bigotry are obviously paralleled in Black's world and the fight for equality/anonymity is personal to many of the characters - I just wish the author had used a little more restraint when it came to getting her message across.

Red Glove simply isn't as immersive as its predecessor; a slower beginning, a more gradual pace, and an overfocus on a side plotline (Workers Rights), that while important and relevant, isn't nearly as awesome as magic-enhanced Mafia families. Compared to how awesome and unpredictable the antagonists of book one were (Anton/Barron/Philip), the duo of Agents Hunt and Jones aren't nearly as compelling. Less action-tastic than part one, I needed either the antagonists or the mystery itself to up the ante, and sadly neither thing happened for me in these 350 pages. Though the fucked-up family dynamic is still much in play in this, it's not to the same level as the first. Cassel's mom and brother Barron are more tertiary characters than before as the novel's main plot focuses on Cassel/Sam/Daneca/Lilah and the murders at the heart of everything.

All in all, there's a lot more to love about Red Glove than anything else. While it didn't take me by complete surprise or inspire the levels of fangirling that White Cat did upon completion, this was a more than rewarding read. It's original and entertaining, voiced by a compelling and truly funny main character. I'm eager to see what cons and girl problems Cassel gets up into in the third and final installment in the clever Curse Workers series, Black Heart. show less

Summary: The king of cons is back, and things are just as crazy in Cassel Sharpe’s life as they were in White Cat. This time around, Cassel must figure out who murdered his brother Philip (something he doesn’t feel too terribly sad about) and deal with his feelings for Lila, the beautiful girl his mother worked to love him.

My Review: Red Glove was every bit as good as White Cat.. I’ll first profess my love for the character that is Cassel. Holly Black did a magnificent job of further developing Cassel’s dark side in this sequel. There were many introspective pauses as he considered his guilt, or lack of guilt, which really made me think about criminals and what it really means to be one. I loved the fact that Cassel was an show more atypical brooding character; he had his reasons for being sullen, and his dry humor made me smirk all through the novel.

Red Glove’s story had many different levels—Cassel’s inner turmoil, the who-killed-Philip story, and a sort-of romance with Lila. Each of these levels was fully developed and exciting; there was never a dull moment in the entire book. The implementation of the Feds was genius; I loved that Cassel had to choose between the mobsters (wrong) and the government (right), and that his rock-and-a-hard-place situation made it almost impossible to choose—leading to the ultimate con.

I have no negative things to say about Red Glove. It was an amazing follow-up to White Cat, and left me desperately wanting the third book in the series. Fans of mystery and suspense will definitely enjoy Red Glove, and so will people interested in reading from the perspective of a bad guy. If you haven’t read White Cat, which was one of my favorite books of 2010, do that before Red Glove comes out! It’s a sequel you won’t want to miss. show less

The new year starts and Cassel is still trying to be relatively good but his family just keeps getting him into more and more trouble. Especially when Phil gets murdered and the feds try and draft Cassel into a special program for worker teens. Lila is still cursed to love him and they were trying to stay away from each other but she's at school with Cassel, which is just more complications.

I really liked this and I'm not entirely sure how to say why. Cassel tries to do the right thing but thinks that he is a bad person, and I think a lot of times as a teenager I kind of felt that way. It's not that you are intentionally trying to hurt anyone or do bad things, it's that you feel like life leaves you between to impossible choices and show more neither one is a great option.

The mystery is definitely not as easy to solve as I thought it would be. Early into the book I totally thought I had figured out who had killed Phil. I didn't think there was any other choice and was mildly annoyed that it was so easy to figure out. I was wrong and it was a character I hadn't even really thought about because the were not as heavily featured in this book as the previous one (although if I hadn't been so wrapped up in who I thought it was I might have thought about it.)

I still love the world that Cassel lives in. The curseworkers rights movement harkens back to the civil rights movement of the sixties and I think that Holly Black handles it well. The mobsters remind of me of those old fifties movies or Dick Tracey even though it could be related to something newer. Maybe my frame of reference is just screwy.

A lot of things felt like they wrapped up nicely here. It doesn't really need anymore, but I'm still hoping that there will be a third book because I really really enjoyed it. show less

In this second of the Curse Workers' series, Ms. Black picks up where she left off with Cassel's story. His mom is most decidedly in the picture, while his relationship with his brothers is now more complicated than he ever thought possible. Let's not even talk about his feelings for Lila, which have been ruined by his mother's "gift". In spite of his abilities, Cassel is still trying to be a normal teen in this most decidedly abnormal world of Ms. Black's imagination.

Holly Black is a master at grabbing a reader's attention and not letting go until the very end. She manages to pack in such ideas as tolerance, morality, peer pressure, and other teen dilemmas while exploring the seedy world of the workers, a world which Cassel manages to show more straddle without committing himself in either direction. Cassel is a character that maintains his innocence in spite of the world in which he was raised. This innocence helps him and yet hurts him as he struggles to make decisions that remain faithful to his family and to himself. In spite of this innocence though, Cassel is most decidedly a bad guy in the strictest sense of the word. He is not a boy you would want to bring home to your father, as he is always looking at the world as a con does a mark. This dichotomy makes for an interesting, if conflicted, main character.

The beauty about Red Glove is that Ms. Black plays so well in the gray area between right and wrong. Humans are never as white and black as one would like, and Cassel and Lila are reminders of this. These are not good people, no matter how much the reader might like Cassel or adore Lila. These are people who take advantage of and even harm others. It is a testament to Ms. Black's writing that she can get her audience to care about such characters as much as the reader cares about Cassel and Lila.

Red Glove sets up the third novel in the Curse Workers' series quite nicely, with some surprising twists that will make for an interesting future for Cassel in his effort to keep his family and friends safe. Engaging and fun while remaining dark and twisted, Red Glove highlights Ms. Black's skill at creating and writing such subtly macabre worlds. She is quickly becoming one of my favorite YA authors of all time. show less

My Summary: It's been months since Cassel discovered the truth about himself and foiled his brother's plan to overthrow the biggest crime-boss in the city; it's also been months since his mother worked Lila, the girl Cassel loves, into loving him, forever destroying any chance he had with her.

Now Cassel is living with his mother, moving from hotel room to hotel room and doing his best to forget about Lila. He thinks he'll be home-free once he goes back to school, but once he arrives, his worst nightmare comes true: Lila followed him, enrolling in the same school - ensuring Cassel wouldn't be able to escape the guilt of what his mother did.

And to top it all off, Cassel is picked up by the Feds, who try to recruit him to help find a show more killer that leaves behind no bodies ... a killer that Cassel's brother was supposed to lead them to before he was killed.

My Thoughts: Another awesome read from Holly Black! I gotta say, I loved being back in Cassel's world - there's something about the mobster/worker thing that fascinates me. And of course, Holly's writing is always amazing, making this a novel you could breeze through with no problem. I, for one, read it all in one sitting (2am - 5am... I know, I have a problem), needing to find out who the killer was before I could put the book down.

I really liked the way Holly showed Cassel's struggle to stay away from Lila - it made him seem more human and relatable. And I seriously laughed out loud when I read the mention of Jace (from The Mortal Instruments series, which you should definitely check out as well!).

Final Thoughts: I recommend this series to anyone who loves paranormal YA but is a little sick of the usual vampire/werewolf/faerie stuff (or fairy, or faery, or fayrie or however else you wish to spell it, because I have no idea which is correct). There are a few scenes that probably aren't appropriate for anyone under 16 (some cases of drinking, plus some more mature topics), but they're not too bad - if you're a parent are are worried about this stuff, I recommend reading it before giving it to your child. Check it out! It really is a great series. show less